Powers of Attorney
Making Lasting Powers of Attorney gives you the peace of mind that if you become unable to make decisions for yourself, somebody that you know and trust will be able to act on your behalf.
What is it?
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that takes affect during your lifetime. It appoints somebody that you have chosen to make decisions on your behalf in the event that you become unable to make decisions for yourself because you have lost mental capacity.
What we do
Our service includes discussion and advice on who to appoint as your attorneys, the basis upon which they will be appointed and the appointment of a “Certificate Provider.”
It is important that your documents are signed by all the parties in the right order and we oversee this process.
When your documents have been properly signed and witnessed, we then deal with the registration process, by corresponding with the Office of the Public Guardian and ensuring that your documents are properly completed and ready to be used if and when they are needed.
How we do it
We arrange an initial meeting to discuss your family circumstances, the way in which your finances are set up, your wishes in relation to any potential health and care decisions that might need to be made and the duties of an attorney.
Once we have taken your instructions, we prepare the documents and arrange a second meeting so that we can explain the documents to you. At that meeting, your signatures on the documents are obtained and witnessed.
We arrange for the Certificate Provider to sign the document.
We discuss the most practical method of obtaining signatures from your attorneys. This might mean arranging for your attorneys to call into the office or us sending the documents to your attorneys in the post with guidance for signing.
Once the documents have been signed and witnessed by all the parties, we start the registration process. If there are any problems with the application for registration, we correspond with the Office of the Public Guardian.
At the end of the process, the Office of the Public Guardian sends the original, sealed documents to us. We then arrange to either send you the originals, or retain the originals for safekeeping and send you certified copies.